December 15, 2022
Dr. Jerry Williams of Urgent Care 24/7 discusses what to do if you've been in a motor vehicle accident.
No, Dr. Williams is not going to tell you that you need to call your attorney, what he is going to tell you is that there are some things that you should do to make sure that you and your passengers are taken care of appropriately. Because it's obviously an upsetting time when you've been in an accident., and you might not make the best decisions in that moment. So let me give you some information and give you some advice. Hopefully, you're not going to be involved in the situation, but if you are, you'll, you'll make better decisions.
Frequently, we'll see patients Urgent Care 24/7 nationally, and we'll see them a day or two or three later. The patients will tell us that they quote unquote, refused medical treatment at the scene. Now, just because you're offered an opportunity to get in the ambulance to get to the hospital doesn't mean you should, if you truly feel like you're alright, and you don't need to be seen in the emergency room, don't go. It's a very expensive and very inefficient way to get care. If you don't feel that you need to be seen in the emergency department just politely tell the paramedic or the police officer, that you'll go get checked with your primary care provider or at an urgent care.
We always recommend regardless of how minor the accent may be that you just go and get checked out, because that creates a baseline. The reason that baseline is important is because so frequently we see patients that will tell us that they thought they were okay on the scene. The next day, they can't get out of bed, or the next day, they've got incredible pain and incredible symptoms, and they wish they would have been evaluated at the time of the accident. Dr. Williams wants to encourage you to have a stiff upper lip and try to be strong in that post accident environment. This is an admirable quality.
Put all heroics aside and go get seen either in an emergency department. If you think that you've got a serious enough injury that would warrant that. At the very least go get seen in an urgent care center or with your primary care provider within 12 to 24 hours after the accident and make sure that everything's alright.
If you do have problems down the road. You will have documented any potential injury early on in the immediate aftermath after the accident.